Social issues dominate this General Assembly session

Athens-Clarke and state government reporter

The state House of Representatives passed a budget last week, but lawmakers’ focus was squarely on hot-button social issues.

On Crossover Day Wednesday — the day when a bill must clear at least one chamber to have a chance of passing — both the House and Senate approved a flurry of bills dealing with abortion, birth control, guns and welfare.

Such red-meat conservative issues have been in the national news lately, but Republicans say there was no concerted effort to bring them forward.

“I don’t think there was any overriding push to have social issues on the agenda,” said state Rep. Doug McKillip, R-Athens, whose bill to ban most abortions after 20 weeks passed the House last month. “That’s just the way it happened. People found issues that spoke to them.”

Rep. Keith Heard, D-Athens, called the attention given to conservative social issues political grandstanding.

“It’s election-year politics,” he said. “That’s all we’ve seen from the other side of the aisle.”

Perhaps the most contentious issues, lawmakers on both sides said, were bills requiring people who apply for cash welfare, the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, to pass a drug test. Similar bills passed in both the House and Senate on Wednesday.

“It doesn’t create a whole lot of jobs, but it may save some money,” said Sen. Frank Ginn, R-Danielsville.

State budget-writers estimate that the bills could save up to $103,000, or it could cost taxpayers up to $84,500 because the state will pick up the testing tab for people who pass.

Ginn said he met with TANF recipients at the state Capitol recently.

“Every one of them told me ‘Oh, that’s great. We encourage you to do that,’” he said. “One of the things we shouldn’t have is people getting assistance and squandering it on drugs.”

Supporters are making an assumption that people on welfare take drugs, Heard said. He called it a “myth.”

“I have a problem with the state choosing a certain class of person and saying, ‘I want to test them, but not test others,’” he said. “And we don’t even want to give them any treatment.”

Other bills that made it through Crossover Day would:

• Ban picketing in front of a private residence, which opponents say is aimed at the Occupy movement and labor unions.

The House made about 150 mostly small changes to Gov. Nathan Deal’s proposal, said House Appropriations Committee Chairman Terry England, R-Auburn, including adding four agriculture researcher positions to the university system. Although cuts are shallower than they’ve been in recent years, the budget is still tight, he said.

“We have to recognize there are X number of dollars we have to spend, and we have to stay within that,” England said.

A $16 million Lanier Tech campus in Winder remains in the budget, as well as $50 million to build a new veterinary teaching hospital at the University of Georgia, the school’s top funding priority this year.

“We’re excited it was included in the House, and I’ll do everything I can in the Senate to make sure it stays in,” said Sen. Bill Cowsert, R-Athens, who sits on the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Next week, both chambers will shift gears to consider bills coming from the other side of the Capitol. McKillip said he’s optimistic that his fetal pain bill — so called because he believes fetuses can feel pain at 20 weeks old — will pass in the Senate.

Heard’s signature legislation, a bill giving amnesty to people who pay deliquent taxes, bringing in an estimated $180 million, didn’t get a vote on Crossover Day. He said he hopes to amend it to another bill that has already passed the Senate.

Two major initiatives are exempt from the Crossover Day requirement — tax reform and criminal justice reform. The tax reform proposal would likely cut taxes for businesses and expand sales taxes paid by consumers, which advocates say will create a friendlier business climate.

The criminal justice proposal would substitute treatment and probation for jail time for drug offenders and other nonviolent criminals. It will save the state money and reduce recidivism, supporters like Deal say.

Both are being written by joint House and Senate committees. Lawmakers said they’re moving along and are still likely to come up for votes by the end of the session.